Amos Elon, the Israeli journalist and author who died in Italy on May 25 at age 82, was described for decades as Israel’s leading public intellectual — the writer who, more than any other, explained Israelis to themselves and to the world. And yet, he spent his final years in self-described “exile” in Italy, despairing of Israel’s future. His passing received more notice in Europe and America than in Israel.

Leading Soviet Jewry and human rights activist Si Frumkin has died. Frumkin, who founded the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews in 1968 and helped make it a mainstream American cause, died May 15 after battling cancer. He was 78.

While most of the world is fixated on Jerusalem’s take on the settlements and peace negotiations, inside Israel, lawmakers have found time to fight over a very different cause: a plan to tax fruits and vegetables.